The last 3 weeks

RBoots

Well-known Member
Were very busy, but this week has been a bit of a break so far. In the last 3 weeks we had 2 batches of freezing rain 2 days in a row. Numerous days of sub zero temps. 2 different snowfalls of 10-12 inches, with several smaller snowfalls in between. 2 days of almost 50?, and most days with wind of 15-25 mph with a few days of 35-50 mph gusts. Spent much more time at work the last 3 weeks than at home, in hours early every day, home hours late every day. Plow the snow off, push the drifts back, put scarifier blades on to rip up ice, back to straight blades, plow snow, push drifts back, put scarifier blades back on, rip ice, back to straight blades and plowing. 250+ miles of plowing every single day. Very hard to push deep snow with a thick layer of ice under it, can't get traction, and the force of all the plows want to push the truck sideways easier on the ice. Even at 72,000 lbs and full lockers, I was having a hard time getting the truck to hook up and go. Some days were 300 mile plowing days to get over the territory, back over the bad spots and a second round on the blacktops at the end of the day. At least I had this last weekend off, so I took it easy. I was getting run down. Supposed to get more freezing rain tomorrow.

Check out the link at the bottom too

Ross



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Drifts in the dark

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Back end of the truck slid off the bank on the ice when I hit the brakes after backing around a corner, took 2 trucks to get me back on the road

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Slightly stuck, had to get out of the throttle when the rear end started coming around on the ice under the snow. The passenger side of my sideplow on the front is about 6.5 feet tall

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All packed underneath

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This is the road before I started, that little pile I pushed up is about 4' high. I had to clear a little so I could get a running start at it from the intersection because of the ice underneath

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Just a little shoveling, some sand thrown on top of the tires and rocking it a couple times and we are out

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Icy road and trees

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Icy, bent over bushes

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Blowing snowstorm on its way

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Looking east at an intersection in the blowing snow, hope no one is coming. Spent all day driving like this

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A few hours after plowing a pass down both sides of this gravel road

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The storm has broken, losing its energy finally

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Cold morning, about -15 degrees F

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Incoming blowing snowstorm
This was one of our guys too
 
I tried to think of some smartazz something-or-other to say about your pics/job, but just can't do it. Don't matter how you slice-n-dice it, that's a rough job!

At least every trip is always slightly different; amount of snow, wind direction, lighting, traffic, ICE(!!), etc...
 
Yes Kcm, always different. I try to run
my route differently each time so that
the same people don't always get plowed
out first every time. The only thing that
stays the same each time is that I need
to move along at about 40 mph to get
through everything on time.
 
12 hour days would sure be a lot easier in a cab with heat But my vision isn?t good enough to be trying to run one of those trucks up and down the highway in poor visibility
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I feel your pain.
I plowed snow in a small town on the southern
tip of Lake Michigan.
A job I both loved and hated. Loved driving that
truck and pushing snow, hated being a slave to Mother
Nature.
The police called us in one morning about 2am. We got
to the barn and you could see the tracks from pulling in
the evening before. Wondered if the officer was drinking
something with his coffee.
He pulled in and said "Wait till you see the east end of town"
Got down there and there was a band of lake effect about a half
a mile wide that was dropping 10 to 12 inches of snow.
That band of snow took eight hours to go from end to end!
Sun shine on both sides.
Mother nature can be a _____!

Steve A W
 
I am impressed by what snowplow drivers can do, especially in deep rural areas like you are in or in the inner city. Both have a pile more challenging things than interstate type work. I have an uncle who is a township supervisor/Roadmaster. He said a few of their trucks are now automatic and that they can do a route a little faster with those vs manual shift. He claims it's not the turning at interections and getting going but it's the spots where you wouldn't normally shift and go faster the auto will shift and then shift back down with out you even thinking about it.
 
That is a job for you younger guys. Great pics, thanks for posting.
When I was a kid in '40's and before the days of big horsepower trucks we had snow fences.
 

We have had the same kind of weather gyrations here, maybe not quite as severe. Not fun. My son-in-law works for a town highway department. He has put in some long days too.
 
I have been doing twp.and county work since 1970 with a blower. 4 different ones,but a Fair since 1978,lot of 20 Hr.days(4AM to Midnight,2-3 days to 7 days straight).It scares me running at night because of not being able to see what may be ahead because the Fair blower does not really care.Plus at night on strange roads,you never know where you are or what may be ahead of you.
 
RBoots, I?m not to far from where you are, and I know that ice under the snow is pretty bad. I just did some plowing yesterday, and I had to dig the tractor out 3 times! I appreciate what you do.
 
I can see davpal's house from here! LOL

Cheer up,it's late February,winter should be getting close to half over pretty soon.
 
Ross, you are truly one of my favorite public servants! Thanks for all you do! Looking forward to seeing you next August at Oakley. Which county do you work for?
 
RBoots, thank you for the pictures. I really respect what you plow drivers do and have to put up with. Not an easy job during winters like this.

I've always wanted to ride along with a plow driver.

Our WI crews have been doing pretty well. Budget reductions after a few mild winters have made it tougher.
 
fun. the only way to know if you are on the road is to fell the plowable marker in the middle of the road. if you stop felling they you had better stop and get out and see where the road is.
 
Dad and I worked for local township in central Minn. winter of 64&65. Dad drove D6 cat with V plow and double wings--I was wing man sometimes. The truck we had was IH R 190 with a 450 cu.in motor single axle with chains fitted with a Wausau V plow. That thing would open those deep drifts like a charm. Bet you could use a V plow, Ross, but hardly anyone has them any more. We had lots of ice back then, so I know what you are up against--good luck, Gary.
 
Hey Gary! I do have a V plow, it's 7' high to the top of the wings. It'll really move snow if I need it. The pictures of the roads I posted are what I call "normal" conditions for those roads when we get a wind, they are drifted, but not enough for the V plow yet. The problem with the V plow is they want us to have a full width round up and down each and every road every day, which is possible with the sideplow. I can take a full width bite with that on each pass, where I can only get a lane and a half with a V plow. It sure is nicer carrying that V plow out front than the sideplow since its weight is balanced as compared to that sideplow that's so heavy on the passenger side and so much longer on the driver side. I use the V plow quite frequently to move the big drifts back on clean up days. It'll throw that snow up so much higher and farther back than the sideplow will. You know what it's all about lol
 
Yes sir Clyde, I've had a few times in years past running a V plow where it was a solid mile of drift and I had to slow down enough a few times to see so I could get lined back up before mashing the throttle back down, and I still was in the cornfield half of the way down the mile!
 
Spring is just around the corner Randy! Then we'll have our 3 months of summer before getting back into winter!
 
Thank you Dan! You ever make it over to
the middle of Michigan in the winter,
look me up, I'll take you out. Or, throw
a white sheet over your windshield and
head out on the streets, sometimes it's
basically the same lol
 
Hey John, thank you for your kind words! I take a lot of pride in my work, and doing the best job I can. For the most part, our whole crew operates the same way, we all take a lot of pride in doing a good job, but as always, there's a couple terds thrown in there. I work for Gratiot County. I worked up in the north western corner of the county for quite a few years, I signed out of that last fall, and now work in the south central part of the county out of a satellite barn. This year, as long as we don't have a bunch of rain, I plan on being at Oakley, looking forward to seeing you guys again.
 
Thanks TDJD! If you see a Freightshaker with the number 2100 on the door, flip me off or wave if you prefer!
 
Massey, you are correct about working in the dark. I don't see very well, and it's very hard in the dark to judge things, all the while with fogged up windows a lot of the time. What scares me is little kids with parents that don't watch them playing by the road or in snow drifts. Scares the heck out of me.
 
Bonham, there's still a few good ol boys out there that will put up snow fence to try and help out. Some will also plow snow breaks out in their fields, which is very helpful as well
 
rrc300u, we have a 4 man highway crew, but that work is so boringly monotonous I can't stand it. Since they need to have those guys on the highway during the day while we are in our territories, they get to go home at 11 PM, so they can run the next day. So us territory drivers are the ones that have to run the state highways all night for them before we go out to our territories in the morning to plow.
 
Steve, it sure can be funny how weather works some days. I can remember being out cutting trees with no snow on the ground while the guys on the other side of the county were struggling to get over plowing all their roads
 
Retired Farmer, I've never run a big one, but I'd sure give it a try if they ever got one in to try out!
 
Svcummins, they try to limit us at 16 hour days, but that doesn't mean they won't call us for another 16 hour day 4 hours after we get home. It's nice being in the cab out of the wind for sure, although we don't run much of any heat in there with the front plows on. If the windshield gets warm, the snow coming off the front plow will stick to the windshield instead of just blowing over it. I know how you feel plowing snow with an open station tractor though, that's what I use when I get home to plow my driveway, the driveway to my shop across the road, and my nearest neighbors. Except I don't us a JD, I use an IH 674 open station with a back blade. Good tractor, I always enjoy the fresh air.
 
It's a good job Traditional Farmer, and seeing the finished job makes it worthwhile once you're done. My dad called me one of the days it was blowing so hard and asked me how it was going. He laughed so hard when I told him it was surprising that each and every one of us don't smoke cigarettes to take the edge off
 
Thank you Lee! And yet there's still the people that complain that it took so long to get there and get them plowed out. Sorry your normal daily routine of sitting at home waiting to go get a carton of Pall Malls and Natty Light was held up for a bit lol. (No offense meant to any productive person that uses those products)
 
Loren, you guys need that stuff there, you get real snows there, we don't get anything like that. We're on the wrong side of the lake to get what you guys get on the east side of all the other lakes.
 
Heck Bob, we never seem to know what
we're gonna get anymore with this wacky
weather we get in MI. Makes it hard to
plan on fall woodcutting, ice fishing,
etc when you no longer have a 'normal'
winter to sort of plan by
 

Good to see Y'all snow lubbers cannot drive on ice either... :lol:
Those roads like snow storms we get we just don't get many... Ice GRRR...
 

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